Since the number of obesity patients has rapidly increased in recent years, obesity is becoming a serious problem in social health. As onset of obesity is caused by excessive calorie intake in most cases, the most effective means for the prevention and the therapy is to reduce calorie intake.
In some patients the calorie-intake is restricted to an intake of gruel, a porridge of rice and vegetables is applied. Such method is based upon reduction of the level of calorie per unit weight due to swelling of rice grains by absorption of a large amount of water in preparing gruel from cooked rice.
However, as starch which constitutes the major portion of the saccharide is converted to the .alpha.-type when gruel is prepared from cooked rice, the starch becomes more digestible and is provided with a higher utilizability in the body as a result that calorie intake-restricting effect of a saccharide-containing gruel is hardly produced. Moreover, the processing to gruel or the like is disadvantageous in that it rather facilitates digestion thereby promptly producing hunger sensation. Moreover, gruel heretofore employed is disadvantageous in that it browns or undergoes collapse of the cereal grains when stored for a longer period of time.
On the other hand, there is applied reduction in calorie intake per unit weight by giving a dietary fiber alone or in combination with other foods.
Attention has recently been called to dietary fibers because of their action improving saccharide or lipid metabolism.
However, dietary fibers have disadvantages of being unfavorable in taste or feeling on intake so that it is difficult to take the material alone. When used in combination, dietary fibers greatly deteriorate the taste or texture on intake of most of the foods to which the material has been added.